Fintech & digital payments rules in Philippines (2026)

The BSP extended its suspension of new Virtual Asset Service Provider license applications — first imposed September 2022 — citing continued consumer-protection and cybercrime risks, keeping the Philippine crypto-exchange sector closed to new entrants pending reassessment of local and global developments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued Memorandum Circulars 04 and 05 (Series of 2025), establishing a dedicated licensing regime for Crypto-Asset Service Providers separate from BSP's VASP framework. CASPs must register with the SEC, maintain PHP 100 million minimum capital, and be physically incorporated in the Philippines, creating dual-regulator oversight of the crypto sector.

The BSP issued Circular No. 1205, effective 1 January 2025, lifting its three-year moratorium on new digital bank licenses and raising the sector cap from six to ten, allowing up to four additional approvals; applicants face mandatory third-party IT system reviews and updated capital conditions.

The BSP introduced a new Merchant Acquisition License (MAL) for operators processing merchant payments, requiring fund segregation, formal merchant due diligence, and a dispute-resolution mechanism, bringing payment aggregators and acquirers under direct BSP supervision for the first time.

BSP Memorandum No. M-2023-005, approved by the Monetary Board, required every licensed Operator of Payment Systems to adopt the national QR Ph standard by 1 July 2023, ensuring a single interoperable QR code works across all digital wallets and payment apps in the Philippines.

The BSP set PHP 200 million minimum capital for large-scale EMIs (≥PHP 25 billion annual transaction flow) and PHP 100 million for small-scale EMIs, creating a tiered prudential structure to match the rapid post-pandemic growth of e-wallets such as GCash and Maya.

The BSP suspended new Virtual Asset Service Provider license applications for three years, freezing the register at approximately 19 licensed crypto exchanges, to allow supervisory capacity to catch up with the rapidly growing sector and strengthen AML/CFT oversight.

The BSP suspended new electronic money issuer licenses for non-bank financial institutions to evaluate the sector's systemic risks amid a surge of e-wallet applicants; the moratorium was extended in December 2023 and fully lifted only in late 2024 after sector stability was assessed.

The BSP established the Philippines' Open Finance Framework, creating a consent-driven, standardised data-sharing regime among banks, non-bank financial institutions, and third-party providers via open APIs, laying the foundation for account aggregation and interoperable fintech services.

BSP Circular No. 1108 replaced earlier guidance (Section 902-N of the MRNBFI) with a full licensing and supervisory regime for Virtual Asset Service Providers, treating cryptocurrencies as virtual assets subject to AML/CFT, cybersecurity, consumer-protection, and capital requirements. It formalised the VASP category and set minimum paid-up capital of PHP 50 million for custodial services.

The BSP published its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, targeting 50% of all retail payment volumes in digital form and 70% financial inclusion of adults by 2023. The target was exceeded: digital payments reached 52.8% of volume in 2023, up from 10% in 2018, validating the strategy.

The BSP created 'digital bank' as a distinct bank category — requiring all financial services to be delivered exclusively through digital channels and setting a PHP 1 billion minimum capital — which led to six digital banking licenses being granted by August 2021.

President Duterte signed the NPSA, formally vesting the BSP with statutory authority to oversee, regulate, license, and designate payment systems and their operators. The law provided the primary legal foundation for all subsequent payment-system licensing, supervision, and enforcement.

The BSP and Philippine Payments Management Inc. launched InstaPay — the country's first 24/7 real-time EFT service for amounts up to PHP 50,000 — complementing the batch-settlement PESONet (launched November 2017) and together establishing the national payment rails that underpin the modern Philippine e-wallet ecosystem.

The Philippine EFT System and Operations Network (PESONet) went live as the first ACH under the NRPS framework, providing a batch electronic credit-transfer scheme and replacing paper cheques. It was governed by the newly formed Philippine Payments Management Inc. (PPMI), a market-led governance body for the payment system.

The BSP became one of the first central banks in Asia to formally regulate cryptocurrency exchanges, requiring Virtual Currency Exchanges to register as Money Service Businesses and comply with AML/CFT rules, providing early regulatory certainty for the Philippine crypto industry.

The BSP and industry stakeholders launched the NRPS policy framework to drive interoperable electronic retail payments, targeting a 20% digital payment share by 2020 and creating the governance structure — including Philippine Payments Management Inc. — that produced PESONet and InstaPay.

The BSP issued the first comprehensive guidelines governing e-money issuance and Electronic Money Issuer operations, defining e-money, establishing licensing and capital requirements, AML obligations, and consumer-protection rules — laying the regulatory foundation for the Philippine e-wallet industry that would follow over the next decade.